


Unravel

by eretria



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-03
Updated: 2011-04-03
Packaged: 2017-10-17 12:31:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/176878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eretria/pseuds/eretria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i> He's older now than he was yesterday. By years, not days. They all are.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Unravel

**Author's Note:**

> Set between the final battle with the _Narada_ and the return to Earth.

"So, _Nyo-ta_ ," Kirk says, dragging out her first name with great satisfaction as he sprawls in the chair opposite her at the messhall table she's occupied for the last half hour, reading.

She freezes, annoyance prickling under her scalp, but forces herself not to react, just clutches the PADD she's holding tighter. "Yes, _Captain_?" Trains her voice into a patently false cheerful tone and looks up at his "I win" face.

"What, no reaction?" The disappointment flashes over his face only briefly, before it's replaced by another cocky smirk. "You disappoint me, Lieutenant. And here I heard you were so fiery."

Uhura raises a brow, slowly. "Do I even have to dignify that with an answer, _sir_?"

"Drop the sir, Uhura, we're off duty." He hasn't used her first name again, she notices. There are a couple of things she's learned about him ever since they've shared classes at the academy and since they started working together on the Enterprise - he may be a bastard in ninety per cent of all cases, but he is by no means an inattentive bastard.

"Does that mean I could punch you now and no one would court-martial me?"

He gives her a lost puppy look. "You wound me."

"You annoy me."

"Good, we're getting somewhere. Another week, and we'll be bosom-buddies."

"Hardly," she mutters, fighting a smile against all logic, and looks out the window to see the stars slowly sliding past, one after the other, suns, nebulas, moons, planets. One less now.

She feels Kirk watching her and turns back to face him, readying herself for another sharp remark, should he still not be willing to let it go. But when she looks up, his face has grown serious for a moment, weariness no longer hidden under a wide grin and the cock-sure façade. He's older now than he was yesterday. By years, not days. They all are. "I would have liked to find out under different circumstances," he says, quietly.

Uhura inclines her head, watches him, - bruises purpling along his jaw and cheek, only some miracle from Dr. McCoy stopping his eyes from swelling shut, angry red marks from Spock's fingers, fingers she's only ever known as gentle, along his throat, but more than those, making her wonder what exactly happened over at the _Narada_ \- and she's glad for the secluded corner of the messhall she chose to sit in. "You look tired," she says after a while - an offering, a truce, maybe. No one needs to know about it. No one else needs to see Kirk - and her - let their defences down. It surprises her how much she really means the next question she asks: "How do you feel?"

He tries for a lopsided smirk, fails. "As though beaten to pulp by a Romulan."

She smiles back, finding the next jive easily. "But I bet you made it look good."

Kirk raises an eyebrow, his face twisting first in surprise, then ending up in a wide grin, the skin around his eyes crinkling. "That's my girl," he says, wincing as the grin touches the bruises.

"How is Captain Pike?" Uhura asks, changing the subject before he can exploit the verbal opening she just gave him. She knows that Pike isn't back on the bridge, she wouldn't have given Kirk the satisfaction of calling him Captain otherwise.

The smile fades from his eyes. "Still unconscious after Bones got those damn worms out of him."

She suppresses a shudder at the thought. "I still can't believe we got out of this alive."

Uhura expects a cocky reply, something with bravado and an overabundance of ego that's so typical for Kirk, but instead there is a long pause. He splays his right hand on the table and watches the bruises on his knuckles. "Not all of us did," he says, finally, so quiet she barely hears it.

She doesn't tell him that it's not his fault. They both know it isn't, she's not stupid and he doesn't need a babysitter. But she knows just as well that the death of almost six billion Vulcans and half of the university's cadets is something that weighs heavily on all of them. They haven't even had time to mourn yet. Her heart clenches when she thinks of Spock - walking off the bridge after his outbreak, brittle, so brittle. She remembers the guilt in Kirk's eyes, too. A strange dichotomy to his actions. "I'll get you a drink," is what she says because the right words just won't come and she hates, hates, _hates_ to see him in this new light and she's not sure she's ready to deal with it. Uhura can tell that he doesn't hear her.

She comes back with two tall, frosted glasses, sets them on the table and pushes one towards him. He takes it absentmindedly, sniffs, grimaces.

She shrugs. "It's replicated. Ask your friend the doctor if you want any strong alcohol."

He raises his glass in a quiet salut. "To first names," he says.

She shoots him a dirty look before raising her glass as well. "To not accepting no-win scenarios."

A third glass joins theirs. She has become used to Spock's cat-like quiet, but out of the corner of her eye, she sees Kirk flinch, returning from far away. "To saving a planet," Spock says, sitting down next to Uhura. The scraping of his chair on the floor is too loud.

Kirk watches Spock. Intently. Perhaps searching for an emotion that he cannot see, but which Uhura knows is conveyed through Spock sitting with them, with no invitation and no announcement. Spock looks ready to apologise and yet doesn't seem to know how. His gaze flickers to Kirk's neck. To the window. To her. Back to Kirk. Uhura fights the overwhelming urge to rest her hand on his, to make this easier for him.

In the end, it's Kirk who breaks the ice, nods imperceptively. It's nowhere near eloquent, but Uhura can see some of the stiffness leave Spock's shoulders.

She raises her glass. "To surviving," she says.

Their glasses clink together, staying joined over the polished table for several moments.

Fin

originally posted 8/2/2009

**Author's Note:**

> Written back in 2009 after a 2 year writing break. Beta by the invaluable [](http://archiveofourown.org/users/murron)[**murron**](http://archiveofourown.org/users/murron) and [](http://archiveofourown.org/users/auburn)[**auburn**](http://archiveofourown.org/users/auburn)


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